Substance Abuse Counselling
A substance use disorder is more than a physical dependence on drugs or alcohol. Even after detox, when your body is no longer dependent, you remain at high risk for relapse.
Certain psychological and social factors can be powerful triggers that lead to relapse:
Stress; especially sudden life stresses
Cues in the environment
Social networks, like spending time with friends who continue to use
These things can create a strong ongoing urge to use again. Counselling helps you escape cravings and learn to manage what life throws at you without drugs or alcohol. Several counselling therapies treat substance use disorders, and there is no one specific method known to be better than another.
Likewise, no one approach works for everyone with opiate addiction.
The right treatment plan will be tailored to your addiction and individual needs and can include options such as:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy:
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), teaches you how to recognize moods, thoughts and situations that fire up drug cravings. A therapist teaches you how to avoid these triggers. You’ll learn to replace negative thoughts and feelings with healthy ones that will help you stay clean. The skills you’ll learn can last a lifetime, so this is a powerful treatment method. But not all therapists are trained in cognitive behavioural therapy techniques.Dialectical Behaviour Therapy:
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), focuses on acceptance and change. Started in the 1970s to treat people who were suicidal, DBT has been adapted for other uses, including substance use disorders. In treating substance use disorders, the emphasis is on curbing substance use and behaviours that lead to it and boosting healthy behaviours (like starting positive relationships) that help the person avoid using (1).
*1-M. Hoffman, MD. (2024)
